1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a winding apparatus for winding an armature of a dc motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
With respect to an armature of a dc motor in which a wire conductor (hereafter simply referred to as the wire) is wound around an outer periphery of a core in the form of coils and the wire is hooked around each connection claw of a commutator, a plurality of winding steps are performed by a winding apparatus for an armature so as to provide windings automatically.
That is, the following steps of processing are carried out automatically to provide windings: the step of setting a leading end portion of the wire (winding-start wire) around the connection claw of the commutator (hereafter referred to as winding-start wire processing); the step of winding the wire around the outer periphery of the core (hereafter referred to as winding processing); the step of hooking the wire (hereafter referred to as connection processing) wherein upon completion of the step of winding a fixed amount of wire, an intermediate portion of the wire is hooked around the connection claw; and the step of cutting a winding-end wire (hereafter referred to as winding-end wire processing) for cutting an end portion of the wire (winding-end wire) upon completion of all the winding processing. As a winding apparatus for an armature for automatically effecting the above-described winding processing, a winding apparatus disclosed in, for instance, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 55745/1983 is known.
In the winding apparatus disclosed in the aforementioned publication, a wire guide member is disposed in correspondence with the outer periphery of the commutator held in a predetermined set position, and a clamper capable of clamping the leading end of the wire is disposed outside the wire guide member. A clamper moving mechanism is connected to this clamper, and is thereby capable of moving in the axial direction of the commutator being held, and of approaching or moving away from the connection claw by moving radially of the commutator.
When conducting winding-start wire processing, the leading end portion of the wire is clamped by the clamper, and in this state the clamper together with the leading end portion of the clamper is moved toward the connection claw of the commutator by the actuation of the clamper moving mechanism and is maintained in that position. Subsequently, when connection processing is to be effected after winding processing, the wire guide member is rotated along the connection claw of the commutator, and a flyer for subjecting the wire to winding processing is operated in response to the rotation of the winding guide member, so as to cause an intermediate portion of the wire to be hooked around the connection claw. Furthermore, when conducting winding-end processing upon completion of all the winding processing, the end portion of the wire is clamped again by the clamper, and in this state a cutter is actuated to cut off the winding-end wire.
With such a winding apparatus for an armature, the winding processing can be performed automatically, as described above, so as to provide the armature with windings.
With the above-described conventional winding apparatus, however, there have been drawbacks in that the operation of each component part is complicated, and that a long time is required for providing the windings.
That is, during winding-start wire processing, an operation is necessary for causing the clamper to move consecutively in a plurality of directions for clamping the wire, so that it inevitably takes time in holding the leading end portion of the wire at a predetermined position. In addition, during connection processing, it is necessary to conduct a complicated synchronized (interlocked) operation while constantly causing the rotating movement of the wire guide member to correspond to the rotating movement of the flyer. Accordingly, the control itself is not easy, and there are limits to effecting a speedy operation. Furthermore, during winding-end wire processing, since the cutter is actuated to cut the wire after temporarily clamping the end portion of the wire by means of the clamper, in other words, since a two-stage operation is required, it inevitably takes time in this case as well.
Thus, with the conventional winding apparatus for an armature, it is possible to effect winding processing automatically; on the other hand, the processing takes enough time that there has been a demand for making it possible to effect winding processing within a shorter time.